A DAY IN THE LIFE of this rug hooker can be just crazy!! I find other rug hookers' blogs so interesting that I thought I would add my adventures or mis-adventures to the mix!! Join me on my daily journey!!

BEGINNER CLASSES

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PRODDY SHEEP CLASS ~ ~ ~

This class was GREAT FUN ~ a good time was had by all! I've had inquiries about how soon there will be another class ~ email me if you're interested and when we have enough, I'll set up a date!

~ ~ ~ FRAMES FOR SALE ~ ~ ~

Maple and Oak ~ Large - 12"x 16" working area $135. Small - 9" x 11" working area $95. Adjustable Stand $160. Frames tilt, swivel and collapse for travel. For close-up pix, please click on 'frames' in the 'Labels' column and double-click the pictures! Call 419-884-0244 for information!

GIFT CERTIFICATES available for your favorite rug maker! Contact me by email (gfraizer@neo.rr.com) or phone 419-884-0244 to make arrangements!

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All images and text are the property of me, Alice. If it's my pattern, ask and I will make one available ~ if it's someone else's, I will direct you to that person. Thanks for honoring the creativity of myself and others!

About Me ~ ~ ~

My life is a busy one ~ my husband, Sonny, and I have a blended family of 6 kids, 5 of them married and 10 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren! We have a building business and I am the Office Personnel, if you know what I mean!! I also have a small rug hooking business in my home studio, where I sell as-is wool and my own hand-dyed wool, beautiful frames and stands that my husband builds and some finished hooked pieces, etc. I would love to hook every day, all day, as I'm sure many of you would ~ but that's rarely possible!! Thanks for checking in and I hope you'll find A DAY IN THE LIFE ~ ~ ~ entertaining!!

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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

This group of photos are animal rugs and florals ~ so many rugs to see ~ so little time! The double cat rug is someone's version of the Woolley Fox's "TOM" ~ I recently hooked this rug but just one cat! Nice sheep rugs ~ my favorite!

Penguins, pugs and hounds running around a rug. I believe the little placard says these were all in the 'original' category.

Love the lion rug in the middle ~ this photo is a combination of animals and flowers and a nice King of Hearts to go along with them!

This group of photos is very appealing to me ~ love the roosters and the kitty cats ~ the child's version of a cat is precious ~ and the beautiful tiger face is April Deconick's! I ran into April at the show and her little boy, Alexander and her sister. You can read all about April's hooking and dye technique's on her "Red Jack Rugs" blog.

It's always interesting to see two different versions of the same pattern ~ the horse rugs here are great examples of two different artists' interpretations! The cat pattern at the right is in my stash of patterns to do. I think the little lion on the bottom is by Bev Cole ~ she did that in our class last year at Sauder!

The sunburst in this photo is another by April Deconick. She gave a progress report on her blog while hooking this sunshiny face! Love the colors in the floral on the right!

These three rugs display so well together ~ my favorite color palette ~ nice and dark and muted! The top left rug is one that my friend, Donna, and her friends each hooked and wrote an article about in the latest ATHA magazine ~ great pattern! And the big geometric is a perfect place to use the small bits of wool that we all end up with after hooking so many rugs.

A beautiful floral and nice dark turkey ~ they also look good together. I think Kathy Wright and her band of helpers do such a great job at displaying all the rugs that come in. I heard that this year they had the most rugs ever submitted. It has to be a daunting job to get all of them hung in time for the show opening ~ let's give them a round of applause!!

Another great pair of florals ~ the dark, primitive colors look so rich!

This floral has the best background ~ double click on the photo and look at all the intricate squiggles that give this rug so much movement!

This showy rug is a real stand out ~ much finer cut than I use but I appreciate the many loops pulled to bring this dramatic rug to life. The rug show incorporates all kinds of hooking ~ fine and primitive ~ and lets us know that there's room for everything! Although primitive is my first love, I value the art that is traditional rug hooking.

These two dark and dramatic florals are in the primitive style but also show that you can achieve great design and depth with a wide cut.

Last but not least, the top rug in this photo was hooked last year in our class at Sauder by Evelyn Arber ~ a lovely, sweet woman that I so enjoyed meeting. She was with her 'groupies' ~ her good friends who love her to pieces ~ they were very fun!

I wish there had been time to get the names of each rug's creator but to take pictures among the throngs of spectators and write down names and coordinate all that is more than one woman can handle!! I've given credit to the ones that I was familiar with and I give credit to each person who hooked these beautiful rugs and went to the effort to either ship them or hand deliver them so they can be displayed for all of us to enjoy.

I have one last post of the Mary Sheppard Burton display ~ and that may be tomorrow's post!

Yesterday, I spent washing wool and marbleizing wool. I've never done that before and will post photos at the end of the week! Most turned out to my liking ~ a couple of pieces, not so good ~ but maybe they can be used anyway or over-dyed. My arms are tired from wringing out wool ~ when I dye, I do it all by hand ~ I'm sure there's an easier way. When I first started dying wool, I put it in the washer to spin and felt it evened out the color too much ~ I like my wool to be mottled so hand rinsing and wringing works best for me. But today, my arms feel like they could fall off!!

Off to wash all the greenery from my daughter-in-law's old salon ~ I told her I would freshen it all for her and then it would be ready to put in the new salon when she's ready. It's coming together but lots to do this week. Open house Friday night ~ what was going to be wine and cheese is now that plus appetizers! My assignment is meatballs ~ the ones done in sauerkraut! Talk to you soon ~ thanks for stopping by!
Alice

Monday, August 30, 2010

This is my friend, Aryl Polokoff's rug! Isn't she the cutest little hooker? Aryl (sounds like Carl) and I sat beside each other last year in class at Sauder Village and have struck up a nice friendship since. I got to see her briefly this year and she looks great ~ and this week she sent me a piece of sparkly wool from her stash!! When she saw me using it last year, she became hooked ~ another hooker hooked on sparkly wool!! Love it! In fact, I noticed more and more sparkles in the rugs this year than ever before!!

I think this rug is a Susan Feller design ~ I know I've seen the pattern in her booth and just love the idea of watering and nurturing a friendship ~ then watching it grow!

This rug was in the Holiday Challenge section of the show ~ look at this man's face. The artist really captured the sad sweet soul of the old soldier holding his flag that he no doubt fought very hard for.

I love this rug ~ a Woolley Fox adaptation of an antique rug that I think was on Ebay a year or two ago. I remember seeing the original for auction and I think it sold for many thousands of dollars! A gorgeous antique rug and a gorgeous contemporary one!

Braiding is the art that ties these three rugs together! Very fine braiding at that! I LOVE the blue snowflake rug ~ each of the hooked snowflakes is surrounded by braided wool and attached to the blue background ~ one of my favorites! They're all beautiful and I would think very hard to combine the two to the extent that was done on these rugs.

This was such an interesting display ~ in reading the printed material, we are told that a group of six artists worked on each rug. One would start the piece, send it to the next and so on. It is so hard to fathom that six rug hookers could create these ~ each doing their own thing. If you double click the picture, you can see them more closely and get an idea of how they created these six very artistic rugs! Really inspiring!

A felted wool roving coat! With big loops of roving for the cuffs and collar and needlefelted designs for embellishment! This was such an artistic piece ~ I wonder if the maker would really wear it ~ it was very unique!

These two rugs really stood out ~ the colors are great and they depict post cards from 'the olden days'. I remember seeing cards like this as my mom and I traveled around the country when I was a kid. My mom loved to drive and travel so when there was a little extra money, we hopped in the car! I got to see most of this country by the time I graduated high school because my mom was a brave soul to strike out on a trip with her little girl in tow and drive to California or Wyoming or Maine! These post card rugs definitely brought back some memories!

We had a great weekend ~ one of the last summer weekends of fun! We went to Lakeside Saturday morning to the annual antique show ~ this was a yard across the street and it was very picturesque ~ I didn't realize the sunbeams were going to change what I saw but it was just such a welcoming little front yard, that I had to show it anyway. Geraniums and ivy and old bicycles ~ so pretty!

Two of our purchases! Exciting, hm? To me, they are! The big wire basket is from an old general store and along with the small red one, will make great displays for wool! And Sonny bought a set of little wine glasses that the seller said were from Heineman's winery on Put-in-Bay ~ don't know if that's true but they are sweet little glasses ~ I'll take a picture if I can remember from now till the weekend!

We went to Put-in-Bay Saturday afternoon with a large group of friends ~ 16 of us at various times ~ Sonny's daughter, Korinna and her friend joined us!! Hope they were up to hanging out with old people!! We did have a good time ~ missed the Clydesdales that were there for a big parade ~ if they had paraded by the winery, we would have seen them!!! I did get a picture of them lined up to board the ferry, if that counts!! It was fun ~ and this week's fun is to get some wool dyed for my shows and help Teddy and Miki put the finishing touches on their new salon! I've already had two calls this morning, so I better get in gear and go consult!! Have a good week ~ I actually have two more rug posts, if you can stand it! But I do think that those who aren't close enough to go to Sauder do like to see them! I hope so!! Ta ta for now, friends!

Thursday, August 26, 2010

This is probably one of my favorite rugs in the show! Anne-Marie Littenberg is the artist and it definitely is very artistic! It's hooked in yarn ~ sparkly yarn! The color tones of this rug are just perfect to me!

The beach scene also speaks to me ~ these two rugs look lovely side by side!

I took 45 photos that day and tried to get as many in a shot as possible so that you could see as many as possible! I'm not a great picture taker but you get the idea of the artistry created in wool! The wolf has several wolves hooked into the background and fur of the main character! Very skillful hooking, to say the least!

These four rugs were magnificent, too! I don't know the artists but I do think that these first 3 photos in this post, were all Celebration winners ~ someone correct me if I have given wrong information. Such detail ~ look at that little boy at the beach ~ and the grandma picking apples ~ the hooking is so fine that they could be photos! I love them all!

This footstool with it's own mermaid greeted us as we entered! The hooked footstool always intrigues me ~ maybe someday!

The color in the rug really calls to me ~ for those who don't know me, orange is my favorite color!! I would consider this a bed rug ~ it was sizeable and beautifully hooked!

There was a holiday challenge, I believe and these rugs were displayed in that area! I love the little girl riding a turkey ~ someone in one of the classes was hooking this one as well. Maybe we'll see it in the show next year!

This little gathering of spooks was hooked by Kathy Wright and her girlfriends, Donna and Ellen ~ and another gal that I don't know. I was trying to figure out how to smuggle a couple of them out with me ~ but I thought better of it! Cute display!

I have to apologize for the big spaces between paragraphs ~ Blogger and I have our problems ~ I got along much better with the old system ~ yikes! The more I move stuff around, the more I screw it up!!

Today, Luke and Luci and I went to see the "Nanny McPhee" movie ~ we all liked it! Doesn't take a lot to entertain me! If you have a young person in your life, take them to see this ~ it's pretty funny ~ warts and all!

Off to finish laundry and get things in order for the weekend. Tad's sitter is coming so I have to leave things orderly so she won't talk about me!! There are more photos ~ I'll try to get a post together for tomorrow!!
Alice

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

What a great day Heidi and I and our friend, Peg, had at the Sauder Rug show! It's taken me a while to get my act together but here are a few pictures to show you the many beautiful rugs that we got to see first hand! This is the introduction to the retreat teachers' rugs ~ I do know the rooster is Gene Shepherd's.

This darling rug is by Jane Halliwell Green, author of the
new Pictorial Rug book. I've seen her rugs on her blog but was surprised that this particular one and the next one are so small! Such great detail and beautiful colors. Jane is a painter and this rug has a wonderful 'painterly' quality!

Again, another of Jane's small rugs with her beautiful dyed wool ~ after the classes on Wednesday, we could stop in and browse the classroom ~ I was glad to get the opportunity to meet Jane (my England Memory Rug is in her book) and purchase some of her wool. Her colors are gorgeous and she was very sweet ~ I'm sure we'd have lots to talk about if there was time!!

This is Gene Shepherd's "Big Momma" rug ~ a treat to see in person ~ we've all seen it on his blog before but it's even better up close and personal! I picked up a couple of pieces of Gene's wool but better yet, I bought one of his #8 bent hooks and although, I haven't used it a lot, I think I'm going to like it! I love my #9 Hartman hook and I sell all sizes of those, but I'm going to give this one a good try ~ I've always been told to use a couple of different hooks to give your hand a rest from using the same one over and over ~ maybe this will be my other one!

This colorful rug is Bea Brock's ~ Bea is from Kerrville, Texas ~ where my sister lives ~ I believe Bea taught Joyce to hook and occasionally they cross paths at a hooking group! When I walked in the room, she knew who I was because we look so much alike ~ I had made arrangements to pick up a pattern so she knew I would be dropping by!

Don't you just love these upside down roosters? I do ~ enough so that I bought the pattern and some of Bea's wonderful wool to go along with it? Bea's colors have a very unique quality ~ her rugs look like watercolor paintings to me! Of course, I have no idea when I'll ever get it started but you'll be the first to know! I knew several of the gals in her class ~ they were definitely enjoying themselves!

The fourth teacher was Helen Jeffries, I believe and she taught braiding. We did stop in after her class and several of her students were there working with Helen. A couple of those gals were quite humorous (one with the last name of Funk! ~ is that right? she was fun!)~ and they all were doing a great job of braiding!

One of those gals was Carol Daugherty (who didn't want her lovely face on the web - maybe she's in the witness protection program!) but she did let me photograph this great sheep rug. It's an MShaw pattern so I'm going to ask Margaret to send me a couple for my shows in September ~ and one for me!! I hope Carol will send a photo of her finished rug ~ I know it will be a good one!

Heidi, Peg and I stayed the night at our lake place and the next day, Peg and I made a little visit to this place! Poor Heidi was stricken with a headache and begged us to leave her ~ I exaggerate a little but I do think she needed some quiet time ~ so off we went and ended up here! It's on the way to Catawba and years ago, Sonny and I stopped but this was the first time I'd seen the lights on ~ I made a u-turn and back we went to visit with the proprietor and his wife ~ Don and Joann. For people like us, who like antiques and really old ones, this was so much fun ~ Peg and I have lots of the same pieces in our homes as Don has in his museum. We also bought penny candy ~ which by the way is far from being a penny these days!

Behind the store, is this log cabin and in front of the cabin is Don, our tour guide for the day and log cabin restorer! This man is like an encyclopedia of knowledge regarding log cabins, old tools and furniture. Peg and I were probably there for two hours ~ he was quite entertaining ~ I said that to his wife and she said "not all the time"!!!!! I'm guessing she's heard some of this stuff before!! If you're ever in the Catawba Island area, you should take the time to stop by and see Don and let him entertain you for a while!

So enough for now ~ it's been a busy week of Luke and Luci in the afternoons ~ school starts Monday~ yay!! ~ and helping Ted and Miki decorate their new beauty salon! Lots of trips to coordinate paint colors, fabric, floor coloring, etc.!! And I have two shows in September and I'm planning a 65th birthday party for my classmates on the 25th (most all of us turn 65 sometime this year) and Heidi and I are taking a class at the end of the month!! Holy crow ~ I may meet myself coming in the out door!! And last week, after being gone for the rug show, I drove to Columbus Friday morning for the primitive wholesale market and then up to the lake later in the day! I needed to rest on the weekend! Went out Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening with friends and Sonny made homemade ice cream for us to enjoy for dessert!! That is a wonderful treat ~ his second batch this month!! No wonder I'm pleasingly plump!! Ta ta for now!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

I feel pretty fortunate to have Deanne Fitzpatrick ship me some of her patterns ~ all on linen ~ I love her work and thought maybe some of you would as well!
"Poppies on the Edge of Town"
29" x 22" $48

4 3 available

This is the rug that is on the cover of her "Hooking Rugs" dvd.

I love her finished pattern (I lifted this photo off her website!) ~ it's beautiful. For those of you who don't know Deanne ~ she is from Nova Scotia and has very unique pattern designs based on her surroundings and a very unique hooking style ~ kind of higgelty-piggelty rather than the very organized way that most of us hook. As I looked around her website, the only patterns that I have that are on there are this one and Dancing in Paisley. Which makes me think, they are all one-of-a-kind that she drew up and put in her shop! That makes them even better!!

"Cove Boat"

20" x 27 1/2" $48.00

I love the paisleys in the sky ~

"Diva"

7 1/2" x 19" $26.00

"Dancing in Paisley"

17" x 36" $42.00

"Out for the Night"

12" x 12" $20.00

"Welcome"

5" x 26" 22.00

"Together Us Three"

21" x 13" $28.00

"Three House Doortopper" 32" x 14" $32.00

If any of these need to become part of your pattern stash, email me at gfraizer@neo.rr.com and I will send them out to you plus tax and shipping!

Heidi and I are off to Sauder Village rug show tomorrow and taking our non-hooking friend, Peg, along. We'll stay over at the lake and hopefully have a little hooking time. I have a refrigerator repairman coming Thursday ~ I am so looking forward to that! There is a frozen waterfall running down the entire back of the freezer ~ all I can think is cha-ching!!!! Maybe we'll even run back to Sauder ~ on Wednesday, I'm meeting up with Gene Shepherd to buy some of his wool ~ looking forward to meeting Jane Green (my England Memory rug is in her book on Pictorial Rugs) and I'm picking up a pattern from Bea Brock (who taught my sister in Texas to hook) ~ sounds like a great day! When we can squeeze days like this into our lives, it makes up for some of the crummy ones that come along ~ so I'm going to do what the late artist, Tascha Tudor recommended and "Take Joy" in the fun and interesting days that make up the rest of my week! I hope that you have something coming up soon in which you can "Take Joy" !!!

Monday, August 16, 2010

This I just had to share! On Saturday, we, along with our lake friends, went to Sandusky to a wine tasting. When Sonny and our neighbor, John, walked out of their respective condos, this is what they found!! They were dressed the very same, DOWN TO AND INCLUDING THEIR SHOES!!!!!! Oh, my goodness ~ we all roared! And got such mileage out of that all day long! The three wives said if it were us, one would go in and change at least their shirt ~ but not these guys! They were dressed ~ they were ready to leave ~ and we could all just deal with it!!!!! It was funny ~ to say the least! After our wine tasting, we stopped in a little roadside bar on the way back ~ a hole in the wall type place. When we walked in, the bar was filled with locals ~ a place where they still smoke regardless of the fact that you can't smoke in public in Ohio ~ and did our little pair of twinkies ever get the looks!! Next time, Karen and I will check with each other to make sure we aren't going out with the Bobsey twins again!!

We also had dinner with a group of friends from Mansfield on Friday night and Sunday went to the Halupki Festival in Marblehead at the Russian Orthodox Church ~ halupki is cabbage rolls ~ yummo, as Rachel Ray would say! A very full weekend!

The weekend before, we were driving thru Port Clinton past a local car show and spotted this pink jeep! We both knew that it could be none other than my friend, Carol, from here at home! She and her twin sister, Nancy (who wasn't there that weekend!) owned this little gem when they were 16 years old ~ and when they were 18, their dad made them sell it! I know there's a story there, but I haven't quite heard the details! A couple of years ago, this clever twosome tracked down a pink jeep ~ I think it was their original car ~ and now they go to car shows all over the country!! Carol's husband, Dick, is their chauffeur ~ but he ducked out of the picture! How fun it was to see my friend and her cute car and by the way, she's looking fabulous!

We have had a busy couple of weeks and I've found it hard to get the time to blog! Week before last, my pal, Tad, had a thing going on with his hand ~ it was very swollen and painful ~ I took him to the doctor, and for an x-ray ~ and finally convinced them he had an infection in there and after a round of antibiotics, he's all better now! Since I am Tad's only advocate, sometimes I have to push to get what he needs ~ the medical profession doesn't really like to be nudged by a caring mother ~ but it worked out in the end!

And those who know me, know I can't walk and talk at the same time ~ proven by the fact that I opened the beauty salon door onto my toe as I was talking on my cell phone, hanging onto my purse and opening a door all at the same time! That was a big hurty ~ it caused quite a commotion ~ I thought a couple of the girls in the salon were gonna keel over! I lifted that nail almost totally off my toe ~ but they peroxided me and bandaged me and the hair coloring proceeded as scheduled!!!! Anything to keep those graying roots from showing!! I tell you these things so that you know life isn't all rug hooking and hanging out with our lake friends ~ a lot goes on here that isn't always fun!

We gave up on selling our little remodeled house and have found a very nice renter ~ that alone has taken a lot off my plate! I hope she stays and hope she takes good care of her new home! Our previous renter had a long term roof leak ~ never let us know ~ and it resulted in a project that took months and over $20k to make it into a livable home again. It was a nightmare ~ one of several that made our past year a real challenge! Lesson learned ~ as a landlord, always make provisions in your lease to inspect your property at least twice a year for furnace filter changing, smoke alarm battery changing ~ any valid reason to check on your property!

So onward and upward we go! Heidi and I are off to Sauder Village on Wednesday for the annual rug show! Yay! And this weekend are the wholesale folk art markets in Columbus ~ always a favorite thing of mine! And my next post should be tomorrow to show you the Deanne Fitzpatrick patterns I have available! So come back ~ check in to see what kind of hilarity surrounds us here ~ and enjoy your journey wherever it may take you!